deckwreck

Thursday night, in celebration of the end of the semester, we hit the 24 hour bowling alley down the street, got ridiculously blasted, and attempted to bowl.

My friend/roommate's girlfriend Lisa invited one of her friends, who goes by the name of Shea, to come along. After we got home from bowling I managed to stay up til about 5:30am talking to this girl. Amongst other things, we talked about music. It turned out that one of her favorite bands was playing Friday night at The Roxy. Now, I'd never even heard of this band, but, upon recieving an invitation, I told her I'd go with her.

So I spent most of Friday asking myself what the fuck I was thinking. I am admittedly a bit of an indie snob and her favorite bands were, as the kids say, totally wack. But I figured that when it began sucking a little too much I could just hit the bar for a while, so I kept my promise and went.

So my roommate and I arrive at The Roxy. On the way inside, a guy stops us and asks if we have tickets yet. We didn't. "Well, I work for the radio station, and we had some no-shows for the guest list so I have a bunch of spare tickets. Here you go; they're free. Have a good time."

The night was already looking up! Not only did I not have to pay to see some shitty bands, but I now had more money to spend on beer.

So anyway, we headed inside and soon noticed that we were awash in a sea of 15 year old girls and frat boys, with a healthy serving of people-in-their-20s-who-dress-like-I-did-when-I-was-14. First stop: the bar. After aquiring beer we met up with Shea and her friends outside.

One of the other guys outside was the drummer for one of the bands, another band I'd never heard of. But he said they were going to be playing with Helmet this winter, so that was cool. Shea and her friends were freaking out and babbling about how they'd never met anyone in a band before and how cool it was that they could do so here. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was at a show where the bands didn't mingle with the crowd. It's a different fucking world.

The second band was actually pretty cool. They were an honest to god cockrock band; they sounded exactly like Chris Robinson, of Black Crowes fame, fronting Guns N Roses. Seriosuly, I was fully expecting them to bust into "Paradise City" or "Hard to Handle." There were even unaccompanied guitar and drum solos. Crazy. During their set some frat boys got pissed off because one of Shea's friends stood in front of them. After watching one guy posing tough to this kid I leaned over and told him to piss off. After the set Shea went and yelled at the guys. I was just laughing the entire time, and Ronnie and I were waiting for either of them to try something. Unfortunately, as I expected, they were fine at yelling at a girl but shyed away every time Ronnie or I even looked at them. I was really hoping they'd start shit, but I wasn't appeased. The funniest thing was when one of them attempted to intellectually belittle Shea by asking her if she'd "ever even read Dante's Inferno. Later in the evening they took our pictures for some reason. It was weird.

The final band was called Shinedown. I dunno, apparently they get radio play or something, but I've never heard of them. Anyway, they ended up being the usual droll, sensetive guy nu metal crap as you hear all over the radio and MTV. It fucking sucked. The only good part was watching some idiots pretend to mosh in the front. Their encore was pretty damn cool though; they dedicated it to Dimebag Darrel and played "Simple Kind of Man."

The sound guy put "Vulgar Display of Power" on the PA as we were leaving. I thought it was mildly amusing that it was the best thing I'd heard all night. But, hey, it was free, and I got points for sitting through the whole thing even though I didn't like it. Unfortunately, I, as usual, had to be at work at 8 this morning so I couldn't go out with Shea after the concert. Ah well.